NorCal Issue 174, December 2019

DECEMBER 2019 NORCAL EDITION VOL. 10 ISSUE 174

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Stories Of Strength

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hrough no real pre-planning, this issue ended up being rather thematic. It became an issue about perseverance and overcoming adversity. And, indirectly, about wildfires.

When we began planning this issue back in late November, the only story that was set for certain was the one on Page 10 that features the Paradise High girls basketball team. The Bobcats are visiting the Bay Area later this month to compete in the West Coast Jamboree — with all expenses paid. We wanted to spotlight the program a year removed from last year’s Camp Fire tragedy.

Not long after we started work on that story, Cal-Hi Sports co-founder Mark Tennis said he would be featuring the Paradise football team’s inspiring season in his monthly column. Fine by us, of course.

Finally, as the CIF football playoffs unfolded, we realized that the compelling stories of Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa and McClymonds-Oakland were the ones we wanted to tell.

You can’t tell a story about Cardinal Newman without mentioning the Tubbs Fire of 2017. It burned down portions of the campus, for goodness sake. There’s plenty more to the Cardinals’ rise, and you can read that story on Page 14.

Finally there’s McClymonds. After winning three straight CIF State Bowls in the 5-A, 5-AA and 4-A Divisions, the Warriors were bumped all the way to 2-A in what seemed to be a heat-check dare of the CIF’s competitive equity seeding method. Mack accepted the challenge and blasted its way into the 2-A final, beating larger Manteca in resounding fashion on the same day most of the team attended a funeral for a former teammate.

Add all of these stories up and it’s hard not to marvel at the strength kids show us every day. Not just with what they can do on the field, or the court. But often how they can do that in spite of the hardships and challenges — however extraordinary — they may be facing away from sports and school.

Clayton Valley Charter-Concord running back Omari Taylor is just another example from this past season. He became the Ugly Eagles’ feature running back in the final third of the regular season. His brother Omar Jr. was one of five fatalities at the Orinda mansion Halloween party shooting. He started against De La Salle-Concord the following night.

Clayton Valley didn’t win that game, but it won the next five in a row as Taylor turned into an absolute workhorse.

The Ugly Eagles won the CIF 2-AA state crown as Taylor rushed for 790 yards and 11 touchdowns over those last five games.

Kids are amazing. Telling their stories is equally so. We feel blessed to do it and can’t wait to start up again in 2020.

Happy Holidays, sports fans. ✪

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Riveting Revival Paradise Captured NorCal Fans Even Without Fairytale Finish

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he dream season of becoming unbeaten state bowl champions in the aftermath of a horrible tragedy that struck its community didn’t happen for the Paradise High football team.

But regardless of the spoiled Hollywood ending — the result of a 21-7 Northern Section finals loss to Sutter on Nov. 29 — the role that the Bobcats played in uplifting the spirits of those in Paradise will be remembered forever.

It wasn’t even known for sure if Paradise would exist as a school after November 8 of last year. That’s when the Camp Fire wiped out close to 90 percent of the houses in Paradise along with most of the businesses. When all the carnage was assessed, 85 people lost their lives (one is still listed as missing) and it was the most destructive wildfire in the state’s history.

The Paradise High football team was preparing to play Red Bluff in the Northern Section Division 2 playoffs after finishing in a three-way tie for the Eastern Athletic League title with Pleasant Valley-Chico and Chico High. Red Bluff graciously offered to step aside so the Bobcats could continue on a week later. Yet with so many homes lost, officials quickly assessed that playing at all would be impossible.

As the weeks went by, the school resumed operations at an office complex in Oroville. The football team got back to work in the spring. With the school’s enrollment nearly cut in half, section and school officials decided to move the Bobcats out of the bigger EAL and make them an independent. They also moved the school down to Division 3.

The school campus re-opened in August and the school’s first home football served as a beacon of hope for the students and community. That night, the Bobcats defeated Williams 56-0.

“We knew we were going to have a team after last season, but we didn’t know what division we’d be in and we didn’t even know for sure if we’d even make the playoffs until last week,” Paradise head coach Rick Prinz said while surrounded by well-wishers after a 28-13 section semifinal win over previous unbeaten West Valley-Cottonwood. “It’s just been a test, week in, week out.”

Going from D2 to D3 in the Northern Section didn’t necessarily mean a move to lesser competition. Sutter is a perennial Northern California small school power. Its only regular season loss came to medium school Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa (which eventually won the CIF North Coast Section D4 title). The Huskies also had a 40-0 win over EAL-champion Chico. West Valley played in the CIF 5-AA NorCal regional a season ago..

Paradise also had to get through a quirk in Northern Section rules to even gain a spot in the D3 bracket. As an independent and even at 10-0, the Bobcats would have been Follow us on Twitter & Instagram, like us on Facebook!

left out if Orland could have upset Sutter in a regular season finale. But Sutter rolled and Paradise was in.

Toward the end of a 56-0 first-round win over Live Oak, some pushing and shoving broke out. It escalated into more.

Several Paradise players left the bench area to intervene.

The section suspended six Bobcats just four days before the highly anticipated West Valley matchup.

Looking through the list of player names involved in that suspension, it didn’t take long to see that sophomore running back Tyler Harrison or senior quarterback Danny Bettencourt weren’t among them. Media insiders such as T.J. Holmes of Shasta County Sports said that the missing players might not make that much of a difference.

Harrison, who had spent much of the spring and summer living in the San Diego area and working out on his own, had emerged as perhaps the best running back in the section and was climbing up the list of state leaders. He had a 300-yard game in the regular season finale and another one against Live Oak. West Valley couldn’t slow down Harrison, either. He raced through the West Valley defense for first half touchdown runs of 43 and 63 yards for a 14-0 halftime lead. Then on Paradise’s only play of the third quarter, he broke loose for an 85-yard touchdown run. He unofficially finished with 21 carries for 240 yards and nearly reached 2,400 yards for the season.

“Just our drive and our brotherhood has been insane,” said Harrison following the West Valley win. “We just want to keep our goal alive and we want to do it for the 85 who were lost.”

In the final at Sutter, the Huskies and wet weather combined to slow down Harrison and the Bobcats. The magic was missing and the season ended.

Harrison, of course, didn’t lead the team by himself. Bettencourt read the opposing defenses expertly and completed passes when he had to. Senior cornerback Brenden Moon helped clinch the win against West Valley with a 75-yard interception return touchdown. And watch out for 6-foot-2, 245-pound sophomore Ashton Wagner as a defensive end.

It’ll never be the same in Paradise, but thanks to Prinz and his players (several of whom will be back next season) Friday nights will have a familiar look: Winning football and fans excited about the future. ✪ Support Your Advertisers — Say You Found Them in SportStars!

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NCVA Prepares To Host Boys Far Western Tournament With National Championship Bids Up For Grabs

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ested from the Holiday Season, boys club volleyball teams from Northern California, Northern Nevada and beyond will set course for San Mateo Event Center on Jan. 11-12.

That’s where the Northern California Volleyball Association will be hosting its annual Boys Far Western Championships. It’s the NCVA’s biggest bid tournament for boys, offering up USA Volleyball Boys Junior National Championship berths in nine divisions from ages 14 to 18.

This Far Western carries a little extra incentive. That’s because any NorCal or Northern Nevada team that advance to nationals will have a chance to win on their home turf. The 2020 BJNC are being hosted by the Reno-Sparks Convention Center — a site that is very familiar to NCVA clubs. It will be the third time since 2000 that Reno has played host to the boys nationals.

As for the Far Westerns, 11 age groups will be competing. BJNC bids will be earned in the following divisions: 14U Open, 14U USA, 15 Open, 16 Open, 16U USA, 17U Open, 17U USA, 18 Open and 18U USA. There will be 12U and 13U No Dinx divisions that will not offer BJNC bids. Bids for each division are determined on the number of entrants.

In addition to bids, there’s plenty of Far Westerns hardware given out by the NCVA. First-, second- and third-place teams all receive team plaques and individual medals for coaches and players. All the first place teams from each bracket receive specially-designed champions T-shirts designed by No Dinx.

Last year the 14 Open Far Western champions from Bay To Bay Volleyball Club (San Jose) went on to win a national title.

Mountain View Volleyball Club’s 18 Red squad also went on to win a national championship last season, though it finished second at the Far Western to Bay to Bay 18-1.

Other clubs that will be defending Far Western championships in San Mateo include, Pacific Rim Volleyball Academy (Pleasant Hill) and Apache Volleyball Club (Sanger). PRVA took first place in the 18 USA, 17 Open and 16 USA Divisions. Apache took home the 17 USA title. Bay To Bay also finished atop the 15 and 16 Open Divisions.

For more information on the Far Western tournament, including schedules, visit NCVA.com in the coming weeks. Information on the 2020 BJNC in Reno can be found at https://www.teamusa.com/usa-volleyball/calendar/2020/june/27/bjnc-2020/ ✪

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Paradise’s Emma Pillsbury Story By Chace Bryson Photos By Rick Silva

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One Year After A Wildfire Destroyed Its Town, A Still-Healing Paradise Girls Basketball Team Makes Gratifying Visit To West Coast Jamboree

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n a quiet November night in 2018, David Jackson sat down to watch the Golden State Warriors telecast.

It wasn’t just any regular night on Warriors Ground though. The team was playing host to countless Camp Fire refugees from Paradise and its surrounding communities. That included the Paradise High basketball teams.

Jackson, founder and current board member of the West Coast Jamboree girls basketball tournament — a massive, multi-division event that sprawls throughout the East Bay and turns 20 years old this December, quickly picked up the phone.

Harold Abend, a Jamboree tournament director, was on the other end of the call.

“He called me and said, ‘Harold, we need to get Paradise into the tournament and pay their way,” Abend said.

The tournament was less than a month away. Abend quickly reached out, but an admirable sentiment met a cold, brutal reality. Less than two months since nearly 90 percent of their hometown was reduced to ash, Paradise coaches and players weren’t even sure if they’d be able to play the games already on their schedule.

Most weren’t even sure where they might be living by season’s end. ◆◆◆ Sheila Craft aspired to coach Paradise High basketball since before she’d even graduated from the school in 1992. Back when she starred for the Bobcats as Sheila Peppas.

Paradise named her its varsity coach in April 2018. By tryouts that November, Craft had doubled the number of girls in the program to 44. She and her staff had full rosters at all

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three levels.

The teams got through exactly one day of practice.

“All but three, maybe four girls lost their homes,” Craft said, noting that she and all but one of her coaches lost their homes as well. “It was such a whirlwind. … We had 44 girls in the program. Then the fire happened and it dropped to 18 or 19 depending on who could show up.”

The Bobcats’ entire program ended up being one 16-player varsity team of mostly freshmen and sophomores. The roster was eventually down to 14 by their last game.

Practice for that team was a luxury. Craft and players pinballed between five different facilities in the Chico area. More than a few times they’d show up to a facility that had been double-booked and not get to practice at all. Home games were played at Butte College.

The team won four games. Considering the circumstances, it’s arguably the most impressive four-win season in state history. ◆◆◆ Time passes, but struggle and pain never stray too far.

The school returned to its own campus at the beginning of the academic year in August.

It’s enrollment was approximately half of what it had been before the fire. The national spotlight returned briefly to showcase the football program’s first home game back on campus.

It was celebrated by many of those news outlets as a “return to normalcy.”

But normalcy isn’t the right word.

Paradise is a commuter school now. Craft’s 12-player varsity roster this season includes

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just two players who still live in the homes they had before the fire. Those two players live in Magalia, a community approximately five miles north of Paradise that was affected by the fire but to a lesser degree.

The rest of the roster is scattered across the North Valley, from as close as Chico (15 miles) to as far as Biggs (31 miles).

Some families have found their own places. Some are still crowded into the homes of friends or relatives.

“None of their lives are normal,” Craft said. Her family of six used its renters insurance sum for a down payment on a house in Magalia. They moved in last February. “They’re all struggling in their own ways.

Survivor’s guilt is a real thing. We don’t hang our heads, but we all have our bad days. Anybody who hasn’t been there can never understand.” ◆◆◆ On Dec. 3 of this year, nineteen months after she was hired to head the girls basketball program, Craft finally coached her first varsity game inside the Paradise gymnasium.

And on Dec. 27, the Bobcats will face Cornerstone Christian-Antioch in the opening round of the West Coast Jamboree’s Topaz Division.

The trip will cost them nothing.

After Craft had made it clear that a 2018 Jamboree visit wouldn’t be possible, Abend and Jackson hatched a new plan.

“I called David and said, that with a year to make it happen, why not try to find a sponsor that will not just cover their entry fee but all their expenses?,” Abend said. “We found a corporate sponsor, who wishes to remain anonymous, but has agreed to sponsor the team and recently wrote a check for just under $7,000.”

Paradise won just one of its first five games, but it probably needs to be graded on a serious curve.

“We’re now basically in our second season where no girl has her own basketball hoop anymore,” Craft said. “We didn’t get to teach a lot last season.”

In a way, it’s changed Craft’s overall philosophy.

“My goal when I took on the job was to build a program, but that focus has changed,” the coach said. “It’s not that I don’t want to build up a program, but I want to get girls excited to want to play basketball. That’s my goal for this group.”

Even that might take some time. But it will be time well spent. ◆◆◆ Rheann Colwell is one of three seniors on this year’s roster, but the only one who played for last season’s team.

“We needed those first few games just to see where we were,” Colwell said. “It was a good experience.

Everyone noticed at least one thing that another person did and offered positive feedback and encouragement. We’re going to get better.”

Malorie Limbaugh and Emma Pillsbury are the other two seniors on the squad. Craft calls Limbaugh her “wild card,” and Pillsbury a “born leader.” The rest of the team is comprised of juniors with the exception of one freshman, Baylee Hovey.

The junior class features twin post players Alysa and Kylee Winebarger, point guard Emma Lawrie and off guard Sophia Scribner. At 5-foot-10, post Gabbie Vannucci is likely the tallest of the Bobcats. Elise Luevano, Lexie Giusti and Mattie Rowney round out the roster.

Craft is encouraged by the entire ensemble. She’s excited at what it can do as it gets more time on the court together, both in games and in regularly scheduled practices.

Time off the court together will be just as important — something the West Coast Jamboree experience will undoubtedly provide.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Colwell said. “We’re going to be able to bond more. We’re going to find some inside jokes and have a chance to connect with each other. There’s a lot of us who haven’t ever really visited the Bay Area before, so it’ll be a true new experience.”

Craft is as competitive as any varsity coach, but even she knows winning won’t be the end goal on this trip.

“I don’t care if we win. I won’t care if we don’t score any points at all,” she said. “I’ll just be so excited for us to be together and experience something like that for four days. I feel like this is something that the girls are just blessed to get to have.” ✪ 12

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anthony

roy DUBLIN - BASKETBALL - SENIOR The Gaels basketball team shot into the top 5 of the FitPro GO!/ SportStars NorCal Top 20 Rankings for the week of Dec. 16 after sweeping three games at the prestigious Gridley Invitational Basketball Tournament. Dublin, which entered the tournament ranked No. 8, defeated No. 17 St. Patrick-St. Vincent-Vallejo, No. 5 Riordan-S.F. and No. 2 Salesian in its run to the tourney title. Roy was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. He had his most complete game in the final against Salesian, scoring 18 points to go with seven rebounds, six assists and four steals. Across all three games, he combined to score 60 points, grab 22 boards and make 10 steals. Dublin left Gridley with an overall record of 5-0.

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bbs u T e h T r e t f A Two Years A r e t f A r a e Y e Fire, And On son, a e S s It d e d n E Coin Flip ’t n s a W n a m w e Cardinal N ot h S s It e t s a W Going To 14

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J

ackson Pavitt stood near midfield teetering on the edge of being emotionally wrecked.

The Cardinal Newman High quarterback had just delivered another one of his signature multi-faceted efforts to lead the Cardinals to their first CIF State Bowl Championship.

“Happy, sad, excited, still a little nervous,” Pavitt said ticking off his emotions. “Mostly I’m proud. Proud of my team.”

Players, fans and coaches comprised a sea of crimson and gold bliss across the Cardinal Newman football field in the wake of the school’s 31-14 CIF 3-AA victory over El CaminoOceanside on Dec. 14. The 6-foot-2 Pavitt was taking in the scene when another reporter’s question snapped him back into focus.

“What does this win mean to you?,” the reporter asked.

“Me? I have no idea,” the senior said with a nervous chuckle.

“All I know is I don’t have practice tomorrow, and that’s a really weird feeling. I’ll have to figure out what to do with myself.”

It’s the type of thing one says after holding a singular focus for as long as Pavitt and the rest of his teammates had. For the past 11 months, this win had been the goal. Some had been grinding toward it even longer than that.

Since October 2017, Northern California wildfires have seared themselves into the very fabric of the Cardinal Newman football program.

Pavitt was a sophomore and the varsity’s backup quarterback when the Tubbs Fire raged down from the Napa Valley foothills and wiped out entire Santa Rosa neighborhoods, claiming parts of the Newman campus and the homes of 90 students (1 out of every 7). One year later, smoke from November fires in Butte and Solano Counties caused an air quality crisis that wreaked havoc on the North Coast Section postseason schedule. Because time was running out to fit the games in, the NCS

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was forced to make schools choose: Play for your section title but sit out the CIF State Bowl playoffs, or leave the title vacant and a coin flip will decide who moves on to the CIF regionals.

Cardinal Newman and Eureka opted for the flip. The Cardinals called tails. It was heads.

Newman coach Paul Cronin and his players understood the risks, but chose the coin flip option believing it deserved an opportunity to play for a state bowl title.

“It is what it is,” Cronin told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat at the time. “Knowing that, we chose to go to the coin flip, and we’re OK with living with the result.”

Which is exactly what Cardinals players did when offseason work began, a little more than a month later. They lived with it.

“We felt like we didn’t get to go out on our own terms,” Pavitt said “We had all offseason to work again with that goal.”

The Cardinals cruised through the regular season with just one nonleague hiccup, a 17-13 road loss to defending CIF 1-A State Bowl Champion Liberty-Brentwood on Sept 21. The team then won 11 straight to close out its season, including a 1310 rain-slogged NCS Div. 4 Championship victory over Marin Catholic-Kentfield — a win that avenged a 59-56 NCS finals loss that ended the 2017 team’s inspiring story of resiliency.

“You have the fire, and that team battled their tails off,” Cronin said. “That was the tightest group we may have ever had.

Then the seniors come back and they want it so much, and you have the coin flip. This year’s seniors had a great message to the juniors and sophomores.”

It was about finishing on their own terms. If the team had its chance for redemption, it was going to be ready.

“It’s been a long two years,” senior receiver and defensive back Giancarlo Woods said. “This year, all the hard work and dedication. We did it for those seniors last year who didn’t get a chance with the coin flip.”

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ABOVE: Hunter Graniss (23) jumps into the arms of teammate Justin Lafranchi as the Cardinal Newman football team celebrates its CIF 3-AA State Bowl win.

BELOW: Senior receiver Giancarlo Woods holds up the state championship trophy.

The win over Marin Catholic assured the Cardinals a spot in the state bowl playoffs. The team was placed in the 3-AA division (the fifth-highest of the CIF’s 14 state bowl playoffs). It hosted Los Gatos in the Northern regional and built a 35-0 first half lead before cruising to a 42-7 win.

That set the stage for a state bowl final with El Camino, a San Diego Section champion that reached its showdown with Newman thanks to a six-game winning streak in which it averaged more than 43 points a game. The Cardinals defense forced turnovers on the Wildcats’ first two possessions, the second coming on the first of two interceptions on the night by senior Justin Lafranchi.

The pick gave the Cardinals the ball on the El Camino 23, and running back Shane Moran scored on a 3-yard run just three plays later.

The 7-0 lead didn’t last long. El Camino scored on a 78-yard pass play two plays into its next possession. Then Pavitt’s big night really got rolling. He put Cardinal Newman right back on top with a 58-yard touchdown run.

“We knew when they get in man coverage they’re susceptible to big runs, especially if you can make a move on the safety,” said Pavitt who rushed for 176 yards and two touchdowns in the win. “When I got in that open field and saw the safety coming over, I knew I had to make a move. I cut inside and things turned out how they turned out.”

El Camino tied it once again, but Cardinal Newman closed the half with 10 unanswered points and never really looked back. That was thanks in large part to a defensive effort that held the Wildcats to just 27 total yards in the second half.

“We play hard every play,” Lafranchi said of the Cardinals defense. “We play every snap like it’s our last, and we love playing football. We’ve got to do our jobs, and if we do our jobs it should look like that every single night.

“And to get Paul Cronin his first state championship is a blessing. He deserves that.”

Cronin took two other teams to state bowl finals in 2006 and 2008, both losing in tight games.

Every coach will tell you that each team is unique and difficult to compare to others. Cronin is no different, but he had little trouble speaking about the drive of his 2019 squad.

“They really focused from day one in January,” the coach said. “You just knew they were going to play their tail off. You didn’t know what it was going to end up like (tonight). It was gonna be a tough game, but you knew they were going to play hard.

“We just had a good group of kids. If you work 11 months at something and really dive your whole heart into it, and the seniors are selling the right message, that’s the result you get.”

Pavitt’s quest for something new to do with himself may start soon. But there’s a good chance he slept in the following morning. He and the Cardinals earned it.

“It’s the most hard work I’ve ever put into one thing in my life,” he said. “And to have it come out to something like this, it’s just amazing.” ✪ — Story By Chace Bryson. Photos By Jean-Paul Toshiro Follow us on Twitter & Instagram, like us on Facebook!

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Several Ways To Find Winter Fun In Concord GO INDOORS — Expend some pent-up cold weather energy at one of these high-octane venues: SKY HIGH SPORTS — Trampolines and more DIABLO ROCK GYM — Rock climbing fun Q-ZAR — Laser tag TAKE THE ESCAPE CHALLENGE — Concord offers two escape room experiences: Red Door Escape Room at The Veranda and ATG Escape Rooms on Willow Pass.

GO SHOPPING — Shopping is always fun, no matter what the weather. Head over to Sunvalley Shopping Center, The Willows or The Veranda for post-holiday sales and specials.

SEE A MOVIE — Catch one of the big holiday releases at the Veranda LUXE Cinema & IMAX or Brenden Concord 14 & JBX or go new “old-school” at the (all digital) West Wind Solano Drive-In Movie Theater.

INDULGE IN FOOD, GAMES & SPORTS — Sometimes, just food, games and sports are all it takes to make a perfect day: Round 1, and Dave & Buster’s.

MAKE A SKATE DATE (THROUGH FEBRUARY 17) — For classic winter fun, there’s nothing quite like ice skating outdoors. Ice at The Veranda is conveniently located at the shopping center. Just park and skate!

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CONCORD’S BEST FOOD EVENT — 3rd Annual Comfort Food Week, January 17-26, 2020 ✪ 18

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BOOK YOUR NEXT SPORTS TOURNAMENT IN CONCORD Just 29 miles east of San Francisco, choosing Concord for your sports event is guaranteed to make your participants happy. From ample lodging and a family-friendly food and entertainment scene to a mild climate — Concord is a place that offers a plethora of exciting possibilities!

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A TEAM DEDICATED TO YOUR SUCCESS Visit Concord understands that your success is determined by the experience of your players and their families. As such, we work diligently to make sure every aspect of the experience meets your standards.

We’re sure that after one event, you will look forward to a return trip!

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M

ichael Peters took a long stroll off the football field Dec. 14 on a cool gray day at Cerritos College, and he didn’t look pleased. He waited for reporters to gather near the north end zone, a place only unfamiliar for his Warriors’ offense all day.

The McClymonds football coach spent 10 minutes with a half-dozen scribes trying to explain a 34-6 loss in the CIF Division 2-A State Bowl Championship game to PacificaOxnard.

The Warriors were outgained 411-112. They committed four turnovers and 12 penalties. Their offense never did reach the end zone, instead scoring on a 30-yard scoop and score by junior defensive linemen Arrion Hughes with 4 minutes, 41 seconds remaining in the game.

By that time, the Southern Section champs had long been scheming their victory plans and celebrations. Peters and the prideful Warriors were planning the fastest way to get home to West Oakland.

A lopsided loss was indeed foreign territory for a squad that had won three straight state bowl championships, 10 consecutive section crowns, and triumphed 83 times in 92 games since Peters took over the program in 2013.

Of those nine defeats, two were by forfeit for using an ineligible player and five others were by single digits.

So what happened?

“That was our first afternoon game,” Peters said. “We (evidently) don’t come out fast playing at 12 o’clock. It’s all right.

We’ll be back next year.”

Bouncing back is something Mack is used to doing. Especially from real adversity. Losing a football game is minor, compared to the kind of losses the Warriors have endured the last couple of years.

In 2018, the team lost its longtime manager and McCly-

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Dreyaun Paul monds graduate Dean Hodges, who was also one of Peters’ closest friends. “That was rough,” Peters said.

On Nov. 22, Ramone Sanders, a key player and leader for the 2016 and 2017 state title teams, died from a year-long bout with bone cancer. He was only 19 and many of the current Warriors were extremely close to him. The team, in fact, attended his funeral only hours before posting a resounding 4613 North Regional final win over Manteca.

“He was a real smart and strong guy with a real happy spirit,” Semaj Sims said before the regional game. “I can’t express enough what a wonderful brother he was. I know personally I’m going to dedicate Saturday’s game and the rest of the season to him. I think most of us are.”

Coming up short in the title game, thus, was emotional for

Edward Woods many of the Warriors. Especially the seniors, like Sims, who was convinced by Sanders to come to McClymonds before his freshman season.

Sims’ older brothers attended Oakland and Oakland Tech, but Sanders strongly urged him to join Mack nation to learn about leadership, accountability and general pride. And, of course, winning.

Sims, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound inside linebacker, was hoping to pull off the grand hat trick plus one — four straight titles.

He did his part with 10 tackles and an interception. But Pacifica, a school with more than 3,000 students and a roster of 59, overpowered the Warriors from the outset.

Quarterback RJ Maria threw for 185 yards and four touchdowns to four different receivers: Isaiah Moon, Kyrie Wilson,

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Nohl Williams and Savonne Farmer.

Fresno State-bound running back Malik Sherrod rushed 29 times for 124 yards against a defense that had allowed just 63 points all season. And Wilson, an Arizona State commit with coach Herm Edwards in attendance, had two of the team’s four interceptions.

Considering McClymonds is a school of just 360 and its roster (28) was about half of Pacifica, or the fact McClymonds skipped an entire classification from 5A twice to 4A all the way to 2A, Peters could have ranted and challenged the CIF’s “competitive equity” pairing Instead, he maintained things like: “We’ll play anyone, anywhere, don’t make no difference,” the 2018 Cal-Hi Sports Coach Of The Year said. “They could put us in Open Division, it doesn’t matter. We don’t back down from nobody.”

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And “We just needed to play better,” he kept saying afterward. “My hat’s off to (Pacifica). … But to me they weren’t that much better than us. We just had a lot of mistakes. ”Some of the seniors, it’s their last time playing. It hurts everybody. It hurts me. We didn’t drive down here to play like this. This was our worst game of the year. Worst game in two years.”

Pacifica certainly had lots to do with it.

Linebackers Brad Bichard (14 tackles) and Caleb McCullough (10 tackes) were dominating, with three sacks each.

Kicker Scooter Carranza drilled field goals of 42 and 32 yards and made four straight extra points.

They finished the season 15-1, claiming the first public school state championship in Ventura County history. They finished with a point differential of 784-215.

But McClymonds (11-1) finished with a 535-97 point dif-

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ferential of its own.

They showed some fine defensive work, holding Fresno State-bound running back Malik Sherrod to 4.3 yards per carry. They got big defensive games from Emmanuel Perry (14 tackles), Arizona State-bound Edward Woods and Hughes, eight tackles each, and Timm Ross and Montrell Smith, with seven tackles each. Smith also rushed 17 times for 65 yards.

After the disappointment began to fade later in the afternoon, the Warriors saw the big picture.

“We come down here a school of 300 and we put West Oakland on the map, it’s a great accomplishment,” Peters said. “We were on the other end of the stick last year, so sometimes it’s just the way it goes. Can’t win them all.

“For a group of 28 deep, I think we did well just to make it here.” ✪ — Story By Michael Scott. Photos By Berry Evans III

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Behind the Clipboard by Clay Kallam

READY, OR NOT So the varsity coach put me back on JV — I was on JV last year as a freshman — and told me I’m “not ready.” What does that mean? I can beat half the guys on varsity one-on-one, and I shoot better than guys he has starting.

My friends don’t understand it. My dad doesn’t say anything, but I can tell he doesn’t know why I’m not on varsity either. What does “not ready” mean anyway? Shouldn’t the best players be on varsity?

R.J., Santa Rosa

O

K, let’s take scenario one: The coach doesn’t like you, or plays favorites, and he’s kept you on JV even though you would help the varsity win games. This implies the coach is not particularly competitive, and he doesn’t have to care or worry about how many games his team wins.

This is possible, certainly, but most high school varsity coaches, especially in boys basketball, face internal and external pressure to win. Making decisions that lead to more losses will generally shorten his or her time as a head coach.

In general, though, coaches know who the best players are.

They want to win, and they put together the varsity roster that will be the most competitive one they can field.

Which brings us to scenario two: Note the phrase “the varsity roster that will be the most competitive.” Consider that “most competitive” is not necessarily the same as “best 12 players.” Think about the phrase “accepting your role.”

Contemplate the word “maturity.”

Let’s assume that you are one of the best 12 basketball players in the school. Let’s further assume that you’re one of the best eight, and would be in the rotation. And let’s also assume the attitude reflected in your question is the attitude you carry when you play the game.

Further, instead of asking me or your buddies what “not ready” meant, did you ask the coach? Did you ask the coach what you need to improve on to become “ready”? Or were you so upset that your emotions took over and you couldn’t go to the coach and ask that obvious question?

And by the way, basketball is not played one-on-one, and the fact that you can beat some varsity players head-to-head is of marginal importance.

Now if you can beat the best players on your team one-on-one, and if you can score without help from your teammates against the top players in the league, then OK, that matters. But backing some smaller kid down or shooting over a slower one really doesn’t prove anything, because unless the other team is stupid, they’re not going to give you those matchups.

A far better way to measure your value would be to look at pickup games in open gym, and think about how often your team won those games, and what contribution you made when you didn’t go one-on-one?

Did you defend? Did you rebound? And most important of all, did you make the players around you better?

Maybe the answer is “yes” to all those questions, and maybe your coach has a room-temperature basketball IQ, but my guess is that he’s right, and you’re not ready. If you were, you wouldn’t be asking your friends to tell you how good you are, and you wouldn’t think that one-on-one skills are team basketball skills.

And most important, you would be mature enough to talk to the coach, listen to his reasons, and then put in the time to improve on what you need to improve on.

Then, and only then, will you really be ready to be a quality addition to a varsity roster. ✪

Clay Kallam has been an assistant athletic director and has coached numerous sports at a handful of high schools throughout the Bay Area.

To submit a question for Behind the Clipboard, email him at claykallam@ gmail.com.

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T

he next big thing in U.S. women’s wrestling is a remarkable 15-year-old College ParkPleasant Hill sophomore with dazzling abilities and uncanny poise. She goes by the name Amit Elor.

The reigning 150-pound CIF girls state wrestling champion carries realistic expectations to win a U.S. Olympic gold in freestyle wrestling — a feat that’s only been achieved once before (Helen Maroulis in 2016).

The wide-smiling half-Russian daughter of Eastern European immigrants and youngest of six children, Elor hasn’t lost a match to a U.S. wrestler in nearly four years.

She’s known for her quickness, both on the mat and on the clock. Elor won a section title in just 15 seconds and pinned five straight opponents in last year’s CIF tournament in a combined time of 2 minutes, 19 seconds, averaging under 28 seconds per pin against the best 150-pound wrestlers in the state.

“In the first match I saw her wrestle, she pinned a girl in 15 seconds,” College Park coach Bob Wilhelm said. “All the rest of her matches were the same, so after a while I told her that on her next match to instead try and get some work in, wrestle and let the girl go.

“It was just unnatural for her, and after watching her get into the second round of that match, I could tell I was messing her up. I told her we were never doing that again, and to go out there and do what you do.”

What Elor does best is win. She’s wrestled since she was 4 years old and could smelt her trophies and medals into a life-size Iron Man suit. Here are some of the recent honors: ›› Sept. 15, 2018 — Under-15 Pan American champion in Villahermosa, Mexico, 66 kilograms (about 145.5 pounds) ›› Nov. 9, 2018 — UWW Cadet Saori Cup champion in Mie, Japan, 65 kg ›› Feb. 16, 2019 — North Coast Section champion in Albany, 150 pounds ›› Feb. 23, 2019 — CIF girls state champion at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield, 150 pounds

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›› March 3, 2019 — CAUSA Junior and Cadet Folkstyle state champion in Fresno, 152 pounds ›› April 28, 2019 — Marines Western Regional champion in folkstyle, freestyle and greco (three brackets), Las Vegas, 58 pounds This was an excerpt to a larger ›› May 2, 2019 — U.S. Cadet national champion in Irfeature that appeared on Dec. ving, Texas, 69 kg 3rd as part of an exclusive ›› Aug. 4, 2019 — World Cadet Championships bronze Wrestling Preview Week on medalist in Sofia, Bulgaria, 69 kg SportStarsMag.com. Visit our ›› Aug. 11, 2019 — Cadet Beach world champion in home on the web for an array of original wrestling content, Odessa, Ukraine, over 50 kg including our newest weightElor will be too young to compete in the 2020 Olympics (you have to be 18), but her success should position her to by-weight NorCal Wrestler Rankings released on Dec. 20. challenge the world’s best grapplers in 2024. The only wrestler that’s come close is Japan’s Honoka Nakai, who beat Elor in a 3-1 semifinal match at Cadet Worlds in Bulgaria.

Nakai, 17, is a three-time Cadet world champion and will have to move on to the junior division next year, while Elor has two more shots at the Cadet world title. Nakai survived Elor in the Cadet World semifinals by breaking a 1-1 tie with a scrambling takedown with 20 seconds remaining. “I should have attacked more,” Elor relented a month later. “It was still a great experience. I was very nervous beforehand, and I think the next time I go I will be able to treat it as any other tournament.”

The trek to Cadet Worlds included a surprise entry in the Cadet Beach world championships in Ukraine. It’s where Elor became the first and only American to win a Beach world championship gold. It was her first time wrestling on sand. ✪

Get more!

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